Lent - Week 04c
The Prodigal Son
(From Conversation with God, Fernandez Carvajal)Sin, so clearly described in the behavior of the prodigal son, consists in rebellion against God, or at least in indifference or forgetfulness of him and his love. This reckless desire to live apart from God is symbolized by the escape to a distant country. This 'flight from God' causes the person to be in a state of deep confusion about his own identity, as well as a bitter experience of impoverishment and desperation; the prodigal son, the parable tells us, after all this, began to find himself in dire need, and he hired himself out as a servant - he who was born in freedom to one of the local citizens. How terrible it is to be far from God! St Augustine poses this poignant question: "When will one find goodness without Christ? When will a person find evil with him?"
The parable of the prodigal son is an invitation for us to meditate upon God's great love for us. When the younger son at long last makes the decision to return to his home as a laborer, his father runs out to meet him on the road. The father showers on his humbled son many tokens of love. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. He wastes no time in welcoming the prodigal back as truly his son. That's what the sacred text says: he covered him with kisses. Can you put it more humanly than that? Can you describe more graphically the paternal love of God for men?
When God runs toward us, we cannot keep silent, but with St Paul we exclaim: Abba. Pater. Father, my Father, for, though he is the creator of the universe, he doesn't mind our not using high-sounding titles, nor worry about our not acknowledging his greatness. He wants us to call him Father; he wants us to savor that word, our souls filling with joy. Father, my Father, we have called upon you so many times and you have filled us with your peace and consolation.
Up until this moment the father has not said a word. Now he is filled with joy. He does not lay conditions on his son. He has no wish to dwell upon the past. He is already thinking of the future. He wants to restore right away his son's lost dignity. This is why he does not even allow him to finish his apology. Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. The best robe would make his son the guest of honor. The ring would symbolize the restoration of a loved and respected son's dignity. The shoes would show him to be a free man. This love is able to reach down to every prodigal son, to every human misery, and above all to every form of moral misery, to sin. When this happens, the person who is the object of mercy does not feel humiliated, but rather found again and 'restored to value'.
In the sacrament of Confession the Lord acts through the priest to restore us to grace and to the dignity of sans of God. Christ instituted this sacrament so that we might return over and over again to the father's house. The Lord fills us with his grace and, if our repentance is genuine and sincere, places us even higher in his favor than we have previously been. Our Father God, when we come to him repentant, draws, from our wretchedness, treasure; from our weakness, strength. What then will he prepare for us, if we don't forsake him, if we go to him daily, if we talk lovingly to him and confirm our love with deeds, if we go to him for everything, trusting in his almighty power and mercy?